


Paper

by ElliottJames



Category: Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
Genre: Anniversary, F/M, big fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 19:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15758598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElliottJames/pseuds/ElliottJames
Summary: Elle and Emmett celebrate their first wedding anniversary.





	Paper

Their first anniversary fell on a Monday, and they’d both been planning things in secret for months. 

Emmett had made the dinner reservation, and, to Elle’s frustration, wouldn’t reveal the restaurant. She tried to get into his OpenTable account, which made him laugh, only to learn that he’d made the reservation over the phone anyway.

Of course, she had the entire following weekend planned out, and had told Emmett none of the plans. She had booked them at a bed & breakfast on the beach in Maine, including two different seafood dinners and a whale watching tour.

Monday morning arrived, and Elle woke up first. She snuck out of bed and into the kitchen to get coffee brewing and bagels toasting, and to set Emmett’s gift at his place at the table so he’d find it right away. 

At 7:00, Emmett’s alarm went off, ringing through the apartment. The bagels popped out of the toaster, and Elle set them on a plate with a tub of cream cheese, and a spread of lox, tomatoes, and onions. A few minutes later, her beautiful, sleep-rumpled husband padded out of the bedroom. He looked adorably scruffy in the soft light of the morning, all bedhead and five o’clock shadow and the faded Harvard t-shirt he’d slept in; Elle loved everything about him.

He reached the kitchen and give her a sweet smile before pulling her in for a hug and a kiss. “Happy anniversary, Elle,” he said, in a voice still gravelly from sleep.

“Happy anniversary, Emmett. Coffee?” she asked, already holding out his mug.

“Please. And thank you for breakfast, this looks lovely,” Emmett said, taking the mug and moving towards his seat. “What’s this?” he asked slyly, picking up the envelope she’d left there.

“Oh, that? Not sure how it got there, guess you’ll have to open it and find out.”

Emmett laughed lightly, and started to open it, as Elle watched eagerly and joined him at the table. He read the card first, tactfully ignoring the folded piece of paper that had fallen out of it. Elle had gone through several drafts trying to craft the perfect note to him, talking about how much he meant to her, how special he was, how lucky she felt to get to spend the rest of her life with him, and how very much she loved him. His smile grew steadily as he read it, and he was brushing tears out of his eyes by the end, letting Elle know that she’d gotten her message across perfectly.

“I love you,” he said, looking up at her warmly.

“I love you, too, Emmett. Now open it! I know you want to.”

He laughed again. “Yeah, yeah I do,” he conceded, and picked up the piece of paper. His eyes got very wide and his jaw dropped as he took in the fact that they now owned Red Sox season tickets for the following year. He looked up at her, almost comically shocked by the gift. His mouth opened and closed a few times while he tried to work out what to say next. 

Elle smiled patiently at him and reached for his hand to hold. “What do you think?” she asked, rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb.

“What do I think? Elle, this is...I can’t even believe it. This is an incredible gift. I...thank you. I love it, I love you.” He leaned across the table to give her a kiss, and was smiling brilliantly when he pulled back. “I can’t wait to spend all summer at Fenway with you next year, it’s going to be the best.”

“Me too. I’m glad you’re happy,” she said.

Emmett squeezed her hand and said, “I have your gift ready too, but it’s not nearly as exciting as this one. Let me grab it.” He got up and went back to the bedroom, and returned with a small, simply wrapped present, which he handed to Elle. “It’s just something simple, to go with the paper anniversary idea,” he said softly.

Elle opened the wrapping paper and found a beautiful leather-bound journal. She looked up at Emmett questioningly and he said, “Read the first page.”

The first page had a letter dated from the day before which read:

_Dear Elle,_

_Happy anniversary. I’ve been working on your gift for 364 days now, and I’m so excited for you to have it. There are so many things about you that I love, and that I’ve loved for years. They’re things you don’t even realize that you do or that don’t stand out to you, but they remind me every day of how much I love you._

_On our wedding day, I started writing in this journal. I had to be sneaky about it, because keeping anything a surprise from you is no easy feat (dinner tonight is going to be great, by the way). That meant keeping notes on my phone to transfer into the journal when I got to work, and making sure it was out of sight when you visited me at the office._

_This journal is full of all of those things about you that I love. There’s at least one from every day, and usually more than one. Some of them are big and some are small, but all of them made me stop for a moment and think about how much I love you, and how remarkable you are._

_I’m sorry for hiding something from you for an entire year, but I think it’s worth it._

_Love always,  
Emmett_

Elle looked up to find him watching her anxiously. She reached for his hand and read the note over again, still processing all of it. Suddenly her Red Sox tickets seemed meaningless, when Emmett had spent their first year of marriage keeping this journal full of love to give to her.

“What do you think?” he asked, echoing her question from earlier.

“I think this is the most beautiful, romantic gift I could have ever imagined. I think that you are the most thoughtful man in the world, and the sneakiest, and I love you so, so much.” The end of her answer came out in a rush as she felt herself starting to cry, and she launched herself at Emmett to pull him into a tight hug and a deep kiss.

“I love you too,” he whispered against her neck. He leaned back so he could see her face, and gently brought his hands up to thumb the tears off her cheeks. “Do you want to read any of it?” he asked, almost shyly.

“I want you to read it to me,” she said, and she sat back in her own chair, but scooted it right next to his, and took his hand again.

“You got it.” He slid the journal in front of him and turned the page, to an entry dated exactly a year ago, and started reading.

_Dear Elle,_

_This has been the best day of my life. I wish I could replay every moment of it and live it all over again. From seeing you at the end of the aisle to saying our vows to dancing and cutting cake, it’s been a whirlwind of joy and love._

_Tonight at the reception, I looked over and saw you dancing with my mom, and I understood what people mean when they say their heart might burst out of love. It reminded me that you’re part of our family now (not that you haven’t been for years), but seeing both of you so happy, made me feel like the luckiest man in the world._

_We’re married now, and I still can barely believe it; it feels like the greatest gift I’ve ever received. I love you, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together._

_Yours always,  
Emmett_

Elle brushed more tears off her cheeks, and was suddenly inordinately grateful that they were doing this now, and not later tonight when she’d have makeup streaming down her face too. “It’s beautiful, Emmett,” she said sincerely.

He blushed and said, “They’re not all that mushy. Some of them are just ‘you laughed at two squirrels chasing each other in the park, and it was ridiculously cute.’ It’s no Red Sox season tickets, but-”

“You stop that right now,” she said, cutting him off. “This gift is incredible and says so much about you and how you feel. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I mean it.”

“I’m glad,” he said, smiling now. He stood up, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “I need to get ready for work, and so do you. I’ll let you read the rest yourself.”

Elle took the journal with her into work, and read entries throughout the day. Some of them were things she barely remembered, like sticking her tongue out to catch snowflakes while walking home one night, and some were moments she recalled but hadn’t thought much of at the time, like paying for a young mother’s groceries when her card had been declined. She was overwhelmed by the things that had stuck out in Emmett’s mind, and was touched beyond belief that he had done all this for her.

That night, Emmett took her to dinner at her favorite Italian restaurant, a tiny spot in the North End where the couple who owned it had known them since they started going there for dates early in their relationship. They shared a bottle a bottle of wine and ate enough pasta to feed a small army, before sharing a large slice of tiramisu. It was a perfect, absurdly romantic dinner.

At home, they fell into bed, laughing and a little tipsy, and Elle felt herself fall even more in love with him than she thought was possible. Emmett fell asleep first, lying on his side facing her, with a hand resting on her hip. She watched him sleep for a few minutes, before turning over and putting her bedside lamp on so she could read a few more journal entries.

_2/26_

_We both cried at a video of a dog seeing his owner, a soldier, for the first time in 14 months. We tried to hide it from each other, but you caught me first and called me a sap, as if you didn’t also have tears streaming down your face._

_I love how we can laugh about even the tiniest things._

_2/27_

_You called me at work to make sure the heat in my office had been fixed because you were worried about me freezing to death. It hadn’t, so I was sharing Jordan’s office for the day._

_I love how you worry about my comfort, because it shows your love in a very distinctive way._

Elle read for a few more minutes, before placing the journal back on her nightstand and turning off the lamp. She shifted over to curl up against Emmett’s chest, and he moved so that he was holding her properly.

The next day she stopped and bought a journal.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed these two being super sappy and sweet! I love them. catch me @jewishemmettforrest on tumblr!


End file.
